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THROUGH SUFFERING TO 
HAPPINESS 



BY 



Rev. Victor Van Tright, S. J. 



Adapted from the French 



REV. J. M. IvKLKU. 



St. Louis, Mo. 1905. 
Published by B. HERDER, 
17 South Broadway. 



I 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 29 1905 

Copyright Entry 
tf^X%. 19 5' 
CLASS XXC No, 

I 3 5^ 3 3 

COPY B. 



NIHIIy OBSTAT. 

Sti kudovici, die 16. Dec. 1904. 

F. G. HowKCK, 

Censor theologicus. 



IMPRIMATUR. 

Sti Ludovici, die 16. Dec. 1904. 

►J* Joannes J. Gi,ennon, 

Archiepiscopus Sti I^udovici. 



Copyright by Joseph Gummersbach. 1905. 



Becktold Printing and Book Mfgf, Co., St. I«ouis, Mo. 



MY GOD ! 

I write these pages in Thy presence, 
with the thought of helping the souls that 
suffer. 

To them Thou didst speak, saying: 
"Come to Me, all you that labor, and are 
burdened, and I will refresh you." 

Give me, O my God, the grace to lead to 
Thee at least some of the most unhappy, 



PREFACE. 



If, by chance, in their silken boudoirs, 
some lovers of the comfortable, some of 
those worldlings who try to reach happi- 
ness through pleasure, happen to read the 
title of this book, they wittily will smile, 
being aware indeed that therein is quite a 
foolish theory, and that such a Middle 
Ages mysticism is nowadays out of place 
as well as out of time. 

"Thy saying is hard and who can hear 
itf ?? they will say as the disciples of old, 
when the Saviour uttered the words of 
truth : ."If any man will come after me let 
him deny himself and take up his cross 
and follow me" or when He made the eight 
Beatitudes spring forth from the eight sor- 
rows of life. 

But it does not matter what blase world- 
lings will say. The Word of God is eter- 

a) 



II 



PREFACE. 



nally true, and the road of the cross, all 
the while mankind will continue rolling 
onward, shall remain the true way toward 
happiness : per crucem ad lucem. 
As said the poets 

"A finer peace shall be wrought out of pain, 
Than the stars in their courses know. 

Ah me ! but my soul is in sorrow till then 
And the feet of the years move slow." 

Let us, therefore, study how to acquire 
this Christian happiness, let us see how 
"to abound with joy in all our tribula- 
tions.^ 

J. M. Leleu. 

Troy, N. Y. 

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 1904. 



INTKODUCTION. 



6 < A heavy yoke is upon the children of 
Adam from the day of their coming forth 
from their mother 7 s womb until the day of 
their burial into the mother of all." 1 Suf- 
fering is that yoke. 

The infant on entering this world sheds 
tears : it is his greeting to life. The old 
man who is in the agonies of death, sheds 
slow, cold, silent tears : it is his farewell 
to life. Between those two events, how 
many tears have been shed! Who can 
measure the bitterness and the suffering 
gathered in the heart of a man who has 
lived a long life ? 

Nobody escapes that yoke. Since the 
fall in Eden, it is the lot of everyone com- 

1 Eccli., 40, 1. 

(1) 



2 



INTRODUCTION. 



ing into the world ; it is the fatal and in- 
alienable heritage of the sin of our first 
parents ; it is our share of punishment in 
the expiation extending from the beginning 
of the human race throughout all ages until 
the death of its last member. 

Philosophy, relying on its own unaided 
researches, in vain strives to discover the 
origin of the physical evil, called suffer- 
ing. Faith, with its supernatural light, 
finds it written in the first pages of Holy 
Writ: "Because thou hast hearkened to 
the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the 
tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou 
shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy 
work ; with labor and toil shalt thou eat 
thereof all the days of thy life. ?? 1 So while 
philosophy argues and faith reveals, man- 
kind suffers. 

In some the suffering is visible, and 
their pains arouse sympathy; no one en- 
vies their lot, for they are considered un- 
happy. Others pass before us with all the 
vain ostentation of happiness : their eyes 

1 Genesis, 3, 17. 



INTRODUCTION. 



3 



are full of joy, their lips fall of smiles. 
We do not see beneath the mask, we believe 
them happy and envy their apparent good 
fortune. Could we, however, but behold 
them in their hours of solitude, — how 
often should we not see them weeping 
bitter tears from a heart broken with an- 
guish. 

Stilly there are others who are not a prey 
to such great afflictions ; a more secret and 
less acute sensation undermines and con- 
sumes them, the sensation of emptiness. 
They grow disgusted with the vanity of 
created things, for creatures can not fill the 
void they feel in their heart. Hence they 
feel weariness, "that intolerable weariness 
which is at the bottom of everything. " 

There is a saying in Holy Writ which 
puzzles me. It is uttered by two different 
men under very different circumstances. 
The one, reduced to complete wretched- 
ness, to poverty after great wealth, up- 
braided by his wife and all his friends ; he 
had suddenly been bereft of his sons and 
daughters. Seated on a dunghill, covered 



4 



INTRODUCTION. 



with disgusting sores, he scraped the cor- 
rupt matter from them with a potsherd. 
This was Job. The other, overflowing 
with every kind of happiness, rich, power- 
ful, glorious, honored, learned above all, 
the wisest of men, enjoying all the pleas- 
ures of mind and body, is seated upon his 
throne in a magnificent palace, surrounded 
by a splendid court. This was Solomon. 

I ask Job about life. He answers, "My 
soul is weary of my life. ?? 1 I ask Solomon 
the same question, and in almost the same 
words he answers, "I am weary of my 
life. 7 J 3 Who is not mystified by so great 
contrasts giving an identical reply to being 
weary of life. Is it true, then, that life is 
burdensome to everyone ? 

Yes, life is burdensome to everyone. 

But, it may be asked, if suffering is un- 
avoidable in this world, has it no consola- 
tion, no remedy ? If there is, it is not in 
itself that the human heart can find them, 
for, says holy Job, "My help is not in 



1 job 10, 1. 

2 Kccles. 2, 17. 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



me." Indeed, we can shake off our sor- 
row ; we can undertake an absorbing and 
difficult work; we can become so en- 
raptured with pleasure as to forget our 
disease, for a weaker sensation may be 
drowned or obliterated by a more power- 
ful one, but only for a time. When this 
one ceases or vanishes, we, as it were, 
suddenly wake up as from a dream, and 
again find suffering in all its painful 
reality. We had, for some moments, for- 
gotten the sword piercing our heart, and 
now we feel it again; it is still there, 
cutting and sinking deeper and deeper. 
Can we entirely forget suffering 1 Were 
we to forget, a new sorrow would arise. 
Does not every day bring with it its own 
suffering, its own trials ? How many min- 
utes do we enjoy perfect calm? 

What indeed can we find to relieve our 
sufferings? What remedy have we for 
death which deprives us of our loved ones? 
What for bodily diseases, for our failures, 
for the disgrace we draw upon ourselves, 
for weariness of life, for the insipidity and 
vanity of everything created ? 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



All we can do is to strive to be strong, 
to be resolute and to keep up our courage. 
That is all ; and yet how often do we not 
fail in our efforts ? 

Or, again, can our wounded heart receive 
comfort and remedy from our fellow- men ? 

I do not deny that we may seek and find 
human comfort. Too often have I tasted 
the sweetness and power of friendship to 
disown its goodness and efficacy. 7 Tis so 
good when we suffer, to lean upon a 
friendly heart and to feel the warm presence 
of a friendly hand. But alas! alas! This 
help is vain, because it comes from man 
who is vain himself. 

When the mothers in and around Beth- 
lehem had seen their loved babes cruelly 
murdered in their very arms, they could 
not be comforted by their friends, for, as 
the evangelist says, 6 'Eachel would not be 
comforted, because they are not." Could 
their sympathizing friends give them back 
the dead they were bewailing ? 

Who has not felt his utter helplessness 
in relieving the sorrow of a friend? Death 



INTRODUCTION. 



7 



comes to his home, ruin falls upon him 
and his family, and the fond hopes of his 
life are suddenly shattered. He suffers, 
his soul is full of anguish. You go to him 
with your heart overflowing with a lively 
sympathy, you would, if you could, give 
up your share of happiness to compensate 
his loss, and suddenly when you are near 
him, your tongue becomes mute, words fail 
you to express your heartfelt sympathy, 
your mind is bewildered, and with sorrow- 
ing look and a warm pressure of hands, 
you can say only: "My friend, my poor 
friend! 7 ' 

Although there are many ways of ex- 
pressing condolence, true friendship, true 
sympathy feels they are inadequate and 
impotent to relieve sorrow and suffering. 
Only those who do not heartily sympathize 
or do not understand sorrow, know then 
how to speak like actors in a play. Of 
such comforters Job said : "I haven often 
heard such words as these: you are 
troublesome comforters. 7 ' 1 

1 Job 16, 8. 



8 



INTRODUCTION. 



How seldom do we understand the sor- 
row of a friend ! 

How seldom do our friends understand 
our sorrow! 

They see the outward, the visible sign ; 
they do not see the internal deep wound. 
And even when God sends us, to sooth our 
life, a true, devoted friend who under- 
stands and feels for us, how often does He 
not, after a time, take him away from us ! 
— — We lose our friends, we leave them, 
they die and we remain alone, surviving, 
as it were, the burial of our own heart. 
No, no, it is not from man we can expect 
comfort. 

Is it from God I 

In Holy Writ nothing charms me so 
much as the permanent solicitude of God 
for mankind. He uses the most tender 
comparisons. Sometimes He speaks "as 
a nurse that cherisheth her children 
sometimes "as the hen that gathereth her 
chickens under her wings again as the 
father of the prodigal son, moved with 
compassion and hastening to meet and 



INTRODUCTION. 







receive him, falling upon his neck and 
kissing him ; and very often as a mother : 
"As one whom the mother caresseth, so 
will I comfort you." 

It looks as if He wished to use all the 
ingenuity of love in order to attract to 
Himself the many souls that suffer. He 
appears as if imploring and beseeching 
them to come to Him for consolation. And 
how very seldom we go to him ! 

Why? 

Do we doubt His power to comfort us 
and to dry our tears ? No ; we are aware 
that our loving God possesses in Himself 
all goodness and happiness. How often, 
lifting up our souls to Him in prayer, have 
we said, "O my God, everything which is 
glorious, honorable, and lovely is in Thee, 
in an eminent degree, in a most perfect 
purity and inseparable from Thee. In 
Thee are all delights and raptures. Thou 
art the only true and perfect God ; Thou 
art the only true Friend that stays with us 
when every other friend has forsaken us. 77 
This we know and believe. We know and 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



feel that God alone can comfort us, because 
He is the true and only source of hap- 
piness. 

Still we do not go to Him. We go to 
men, we go to creatures, that are vain and 
impotent. What may be the reason of 
such inconsistency? 

It is perhaps because our poor souls are 
so dominated by our bodies, that we are 
unable to catch any comfort except that 
which flatters the senses. We are, in some 
manner, so materialized, as to be almost 
unable to relish what is intellectual or 
spiritual. God, as it were, should show 
Himself to our corporal eyes, should touch 
our hands, and speak to our ears, in order 
to be seen, felt, and heard by us. Our 
faculties are spiritually so blunt, as not to 
feel and profit by the mysterious and 
tender workings of the divine goodness. 

Being man's Sovereign and knowing his 
essence perfectly, God can move and com- 
fort man in his body and senses ; He can 
even infuse into our organism, into our 
nerves, and our bones a thrill of happiness, 



INTRODUCTION. 



11 



as He did to some saints. Sometimes, 

too, He does this to us, to a certain ex- 
tent ; and it is then that we receive those 
delicious moments of serenity, for which 
we vainly seek around us an apparent and 
created cause. Still God very seldom acts 
thus visibly. Usually it is to our mind, 
our reason/ or our faith that He speaks 
and communicates Himself. It is only 
an inward austere comfort He gives us, 
and because we are too fond of worldly en- 
joyment, we do not appreciate it, we dis- 
dain it as disagreeable and ineffectual. 
How foolish we are ! 

Yes, how foolish we are! However, 
God who knows of what clay we are made, 
has had pity on us: "He humbled Him- 
self, taking the form of a servant, being 
made in the likeness of men and in habit 
found as a man. ?? 1 

Christ J^esus, the Word made flesh, God 
become man, will therefore be the com- 
forter of our sufferings, will be our friend, 
will open His heart to our hearts. In 



J Phil. 2, 17. 



12 



INTRODUCTION. 



Christ Jesus all is mystery for our feeble 
and doubtful reason ; but among the pro- 
blems raised by His human incarnation, 
the one which has always attracted me 
strongly, is why He chose to live a life of 
sorrow and suffering, why He chose to be 
the "man of sorrows. ?? 

In order to teach men faith and duty, to 
recall to them the old forgotten law, to 
raise again fallen human nature, it was not 
necessary for Christ to undergo suffering. 
To pay our debt to the justice of God the 
Father, the smallest act of reparation from 
God the Son would have sufficed. 

However, He drank the chalice of atone- 
ment to the last drop. 

Why? 

Why did He suffer ? 

I see only one answer: He suffered in 
order to teach us how to suffer. 

Therefore, O ye who suffer and do not 
know how to suffer, go to Him. Listen to 
His silent teaching from the crib to Cal- 
vary ; saturate your soul with it, engrave 
it on your memory, cherish it and carry it 



INTRODUCTION. 



13 



nearest to your heart. It will be your 
strength, your energy, your courage. Saint 
Augustine calls us "the children of Cal- 
vary.' 7 Yes, we are indeed the children 
of Calvary. ? Tis there Christ begot us to 
His grace, and it is there He will yet shed 
in our weak and helpless hearts a power of 
resignation, which will enable them to 
look, without fear or fainting, upon the 
long series of miseries, sometimes painful, 
which flow in a human life. 

How did Christ effect this ? 

He did not change the sad state of His 
creatures, nor remove their sufferings ; but 
He took them upon Himself. "He hath 
borne our infirmities and carried our sor- 
rows. ?? 1 He took up His cross and went 
to Golgotha. From that day suffering has 
become for man a glorious mark, a seal of 
Christian nobility. 

Do not be sad if you suffer; you are 
called to the fellowship of His sufferings. 
With Him go to Calvary, ascend that 
rugged mountain ; you will not take a step 

1 Isaias 53, 4. 



14 



INTRODUCTION. 



without finding the footprints of the Cruci- 
fied. Not a tear of your eye, not a drop of 
your heart's blood will fall without being 
mingled with the tears and the blood of 
Christ. See that forehead, those hands, 
those feet, that torn bosom, those red 
eyes, that pierced heart. If your forehead 
is as His, crowned with thorns, if your 
hands are as His, pierced, if your heart 
is as His, transfixed, rejoice, for you wear 
the marks of your king. "You are made 
conformable to His death." 1 

But Christ has not only made suffering 
glorious, He has made it happy. "I am 
filled with comfort 7 ? ; "I exceedingly abound 
with joy in all my tribulations. " 

Worldlings fail to understand this. They 
do not see how one can love suffering. 
According to them it is folly; and the 
world has always held this belief, so that 
St. Paul could truly exclaim: "We preach 
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling- 
block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.' 72 



1 Phil. 3, 10. 

2 1 Cor. 1, 23, 



INTRODUCTION. 



15 



It does not matter whether the world 
understands this or not. The fact is 
before us. At the foot of the cross a. new 
race was born, a race which loves sorrow, 
which makes it the companion of its pil- 
grimage, which prefers it to pleasure. It 
prefers humility and contempt to glory, 
poverty and suffering to riches. That race 
has been perpetuated by a divine germina- 
tion. Its growth continues in our day. 
Our voluptuous age still sees, as in the 
first centuries of the Church, penitents 
fond of suffering, because Christ has suf- 
fered ; our independent and insubordinate 
age beholds men whose ambition it is to be 
obedient and contrite, because Christ an- 
nihilated Himself unto the death of the 
cross. Our age with its inordinate craving 
for wealth, sees many loving poverty, be- 
cause Christ was poor. Who will deny 
this? And how is it then we do not 
recognize that Jesus Christ has put a 
charm into suffering, a charm of which 
perhaps some do not realize the attraction, 
but which others gather up and preserve. 



16 



INT&ODTCTXON . 



You ask me the secret of this mysterious 
transformation. Here it is. It is love. 
Love which makes suffering for the Beloved 
sweet and dear, love risen from the fire of 
silent communications between the heart of 
the Divine Crucified and the poor mortal 
hearts that approach His cross. 

Besides, let us not forget these comfort- 
ing words of the apostle: "That of our 
tribulations which is at present light and 
momentary, worketh for us, exceedingly 
above measure, an eternal weight of glory." 
u As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so 
Bhall ye be also of the consolation. " 

Ye who now suffer, shall reach soon 
those summits of life, whence the sight of 
the future inspires more sadness than 
hope. You shall have lost upon the way 
those enthusiastic illusions, those simple 
joys, those smiling dreams of the spring of 
life, for they shall all fade. The wind that 
blows upon your head is a chilling wind 
that strips the trees. You shall go down. 

Steep is the slope ! ■ and then the end 

will come : its name is death. Ah ! when 



INTRODUCTION. 



17 



life is so short, eternity so long, when 
death, at any moment, can cut our life's 
thread and lay us in the grave, believe me, 
sweet it is to think that the share of suffer- 
ing we have to endure here below, is a 
fruitful seed of happiness, cast in the soil 
of eternity. 

Christians enjoy true peace when they 
rest in the arms of their loving Eedeemer. 



2 



MEDITATION I. 



Jesus is Sentenced to Death. 



Sold by one of His chosen disciples, 
bound by the Eoman pretorians, dragged 
from one judge to another by the Jews 
thirsting for His blood, though they can- 
not lay any crime to His charge, Christ 
Jesus is at last led before Pilate. Here 
below the supreme hope of the innocent is 
in Justice ; so in the case of Jesus there 
was reason to hope in the integrity of a 
Eoman magistrate. Pilate interrogates 
Him — he does not find in Him any guilt, 
as he twice proclaimed; he should then 
have set Him free; but no! the mob de- 
mands the death of Christ, and the mob is 
there, hateful, cruel, howling in the vesti- 
bule of the Pretorium. Pilate, already 



(19) 



20 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

weak and yielding, has an inspiration of 
barbarous commiseration: "I shall have 
Him scourged," he said within himself. 
"When they shall see Him bleeding, they 
shall have pity on Him.' 7 And Jesus was 
fearfully scourged by the Eoman soldiers, 
but the mob showed no pity. He must 
die. To Pilate, who was exasperated at 
so stubborn a hatred against the Just One, 
the priests said: "Be careful, if thou re- 
lease this man, thou art not Caesar's 
friend. For whosoever maketh himself a 
king, speaketh against Caesar;" and 
Pilate, hearing these words, trembled and 
feared to lose his governorship, and deliv- 
ered the Innocent One unto them to be 
crucified, saying: "I am innocent of the 
blood of this just man" and he washed his 
hands before the people. In the meantime 
Jesus was offering His hands to the sol- 
diers who were to lead Him to execution. 

The triumphant multitude now leap for 
joy, for they are about to see Christ die ; 
they are urging the soldiers to proceed 
with their work How the Jews, and 



JESUS IS SENTENCED TO DEATH. 21 

especially the Pharisees exult, for they 
will now get rid of the preacher! Jesus 
hears all. He hears the calumnies of His 
accusers, the cowardly answers of Pilate, 
the insults of the crowd and its joyous 
shouts, . . . and He holds His peace. Five 
days before, this same crowd had pro- 
claimed Him their king: "Hosannah to 
the Son of David! " He now in vain looks 
for His apostles, whom He loved, whom 
He called His brethren. Peter, the chief ? 
trembling before a woman, had denied 
Him three times : "1 swear I do not know 
this man," he had said. Judas, the traitor, 
had hung himself. The others, at the first 
alarm, had fled and sought a place of con- 
cealment. "He holds His peace. ?? He 
still seeks in the crowd for the sick He 
had cured, the blind to whom He had 
given sight, the lame whom He made to 
walk, the centurion whose servant He had 
healed, the widow of Nairn whose son He 

had raised to life Not one of them 

was there! Yes, there is a centurion; 
but he is busy seeing that the cross is made 



22 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

heavy enough; there are some women; 
yes, but with their hair dishevelled they 
also are shouting: "Let Him be crucified, 
and let His blood fall upon our children. 7 ' 
Thus, is there no one among this crowd, 
who will speak for Christ! ~No one who 
remembers His favors ? No one to voice 
the words of which the hill still holds the 
echo: "Blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord; blessed is the womb 
that bore Thee and the paps that gave 
Thee suck"? Ho, no one is there to be- 
friend him. Jesus is alone, betrayed, sold, 
abandoned, .... alone in the hand of His 
executioners; "and He holds His peace." 

My God, how can I venture to compare 
our little sorrows to Thy exceedingly great 
anguish ? We, too, have, in this world of 
ours, to drink from the chalice of calumny. 
We are sometimes charged with faults, 
the thought of which never entered our 
minds. Our most secret thoughts are 
searched into, in order to discover therein 
intentions which we never conceived. Our 
words are misunderstood and their mean- 



JESUS IS SENTENCED TO DEATH. 23 

ings perverted. Our friendships the most 
pure are given the aspect of base passions. 
What we do simply and without further 
thought we are said to do maliciously and 
shrewdly. We are the victims of envy. 
Let us endure these trials with patience , 
and, like Christ, let us know how to hold 
our peace. Let us calmly undergo slights, 

disparagement, contempt and insult 

In comparison with what Christ under- 
went, what is all this but the shadow of 
His divine sufferings ? Still He held His 
peace. Now, we too, have judges, the 
natural protectors and supporters of our 
rights. Their is either a father, a mother, 
a husband, a dear friend, whose esteem 
we hold deeper in our hearts than all else. 
Do these judge us well at all times ? How 
often they even do not afford us any help, 
any succor! They believe the sayings of 
our enemies, slight us, condemn us, and 
even treat us with contempt. How often 
we have had to say, like David: #< If my 
enemy had reviled me, I would verily have 
borne with it; and if he that hated me, 



24 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

had spoken great things against me, I 
would perhaps have hidden myself from 
him; but thou, a man of one mind, my 
guide, my familiar who didst take sweet- 
meats together with me . . . . !" And, as 
on the lips of David, these sorrowful words 
have been interrupted by the sobbings of 
our hearts. 

Let us hold our peace. I had been good 
to men, I had devoted myself to them. . . . 
Now that I suffer, where are they? They 
have fled away .... Who knows? Per- 
haps they have betrayed and sold me. I 
had loved, I had put all my heart in that 
love, I was living only for the one I loved. 
Day and night my thoughts were of him, 
and my work, my honor, my happiness, 
my life, my all were devoted to him. 
Where are those I loved ! They have left 
me, along the way, as a broken vessel, the 
burden of which each thinks too heavy, 
and I am forsaken and alone. 

Personally Jesus was innocent. Although 
He had taken on Himself the sins of all 



JESUS IS SENTENCED TO DEATH. 25 

mankind, these sins could not be laid to 
His charge by Pilate. Before His judge 
and accusers, He stood spotless and blame- 
less. But as for us, who complain of being 
accused, of being forsaken, are we like 
Him guiltless? Yes, perhaps we are 
guiltless of the charge that is against us ; 
but for how many sins should we not have 
to blush, if they were not hidden in the in- 
most recesses of our hearts! Is there any 
man who would willingly appear before 
the world, exactly as he sees himself, in 
the solitude of his conscience, with all his 
hidden deeds, desires, regrets, thoughts 
and passions ? 

We should be judged, then, according 
to our deserts ; . . . and we grieve now, be- 
cause some faults of ours, only one of our 
many faults, has been discovered and 
judged. Ah! if everything were known! 
Let us hold our peace, and under the con- 
demnations of the world, let us bow our 
heads with patience, for juste patimur, "we 
suffer justly; ?? we richly deserve it. Jesus 
allowed Himself to be condemned ; He en- 



28 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

dured all. Guiltless, He wished to expiate 
our faults : guilty, let us unite our expia- 
tion to His and let us commence by under- 
going the sentence, like Him, without re- 
crimination. Like Him, let us endure the 
desertion of our friends, the accusations of 
our enemies, their disdain, their betrayal ; 
let us take this burden on our shoulders ; 
for what is it in comparison with the bur- 
den, which is to be put upon Jesus ! 



MEDITATION II, 



Jesus is Laden with His Cross. 

Everything is ready: the cross is fin- 
ished, the Boman soldiers are armed. . . . 
Proceed to Calvary. The multitude starts ; 
children run, sing and cheer . . . they wish 
to see how a man suffers capital punish- 
ment. The chief priests and ancients of 
the people then follow, concealing under a 
serious exterior the secret joy of their 

souls O ye, who cover with the veil 

of the divine name your bloody hatred, 
who justify, under the pretext of keeping 
the law and the prophets, your ignomini- 
ous revenge, what did Christ commit 
against you ? 

And now comes the crowd which does 
not know what they do, the crowd which 



(27) 



28 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

was paid, the crowd which spits upon 
Christ and embraces Barabbas. Christ, 
Thy time has come, go on ! Soldiers hold 
the cross erect before putting it on His 
divine shoulder; it is upright, its black 
shadow can be contemplated. Suddenly, 
Jesus, as if aroused from a deep thought, 
sees it ; His eyes beam, His lips smile, He 
opens His arms to it, He accepts it, He 
takes it upon His shoulder and He goes 
on ... . He goes to Calvary, He goes to 
death. The crowd shouts continually. 
Above this shouting is heard, now and 
then, the confused and dull noise of the 
mob uttering vulgar jokes, abjectly ridicul- 
ing Jesus. They eagerly push forward, 
jostling one another to feast their eyes on 
the suffering Saviour. These Jews, always 
ready to revolt against the Eoman author- 
ity,, these Jews trembling at the remem- 
brance of the law and their fatherland, 
these Jews so anxious to shake off the 
Eoman yoke, these Jews so full of hate 
against Caesar, now cheer Caesar's sol- 
diers, because they are to execute a Jew 



JESUS IS LADEN WITH HIS CROSS. 29 



charged with preaching revolt against 

Caesar In order to obtain the blood 

of Christ, they have suddenly become 
Caesar's most loyal subjects! 

Jesus proceeds in silence on His way 
amid a shower of base insults and out- 
rages. But what a lesson the Master is 
giving us ! Let us take it now, 

Suffering is our cross. How do we act 
when it is upon us ? When it is yet far 
off, threatening us, and even long before it 
reaches us, we are distressed; we an- 
ticipate our sorrow, and thus add to its 
weight. Our imagination, straying away, 
supplies us with false pretexts of sorrow. 
How often have we shed tears for evils 
which never reached us ! Vain and child- 
ish tears! Did Christ fear the gibbet, 
while the executioners were felling the 
tree, while they were making the cross, or 
when they were bringing it to place it on 
His shoulder? No; His thoughts, calm 
and resigned, were dwelling with love 
upon the Providence of His Father. Let 



30 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

us not anticipate or worry about the 
future, is not the present heavy enough ? 
"Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." 
The future belongs to God; He alone 

knows what it has in store for us 

Whatever happens, happens because God 
wills or permits it. Let us rest in the 
arms of Divine Providence, placing our 
heart upon His heart, and let us draw 
close to Him, "like chickens under the 
wings" of the hen. Now when the cross 
is offered to Jesus, how gladly He wel- 
comes it! And we, what do we do? We 
close our eyes so as not to see our cross, 
we turn our heads aside, we flee from it ; 
.... but it follows us, it reaches us, and 
we stumble and fall under its weight. Let 
us be strong. Sorrowful as life may be, 
God proportions suffering according to our 
strength. Let us not exaggerate our pain, 
in order to excuse our weakness. Let us 
look straight at the cross, as it stands erect 
before us, remembering that everything 
here below, even sorrow and suffering, live 
but one day. 



MEDITATION III. 

Jesus Falls the First Time. 

Under the weight of the cross, Jesus 
proceeds on His way. From the moment 
when, at Gethsemane, the soldiers led by 
Judas ? had arrested Him, and even since 
the Last Supper, He had tasted neither 
food nor drink. Eestless and in many 
ways tormented, He had spent a terrible 
night ; He had undergone the examination 
before Annas, been led away to Caiphas, 
and in the morning to Pilale ; Pilate had 
sent Him to Herod. Sent back to Pilate, 
He had been most cruelly scourged, buf- 
feted, and crowned with thorns. Finally 
with blood flowing from His fair head, He 
had taken up the cross. But very soon, 
notwithstanding His courage, He becomes 



(31) 



32 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

weak : His breast heaves, His feet, a long 
time controlled by His will, stronger than 
His sorrow, falter at last; He trembles, 
His knees bend, He totters, He falls to 
the ground with the cross upon Him. 

Then there is a stir in the mob: they 
fear their victim will escape crucifixion. 
Seeing, however, that Christ is still living, 
they feel relieved and again begin to out- 
rage Him. Boughly the soldiers raise 
Him, and, devoid of pity, they again place 
the cross on His shoulder and push Him 
forward. Jesus, weak, pale, and bleeding 
goes on. 

To take up our cross valiantly, to ac- 
cept sorrow when God offers us its bitter 
chalice, is the part of a great soul. ? Tis 
the first step toward Calvary, the way all 
Christian souls must go, painful as it may 
be. The excitement of the first hour, the 
enthusiasm always inspired by a great 
cause, the consciousness of doing some- 
thing great and noble, naturally serve as 
incentives to be heroic enough to accept 



JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME. 33 

our trials. At first glance, there are few 
human hearts which are not ready to be- 
come martyrs. But there is something 
more difficult and painful than a short 
martyrdom ; and that is a protracted and 
permanent sorrow. When our transient 
enthusiasm has vanished, when we are face 
to face, as it were, with our persistent 
cross, . . . how weak are we not ! To suf- 
fer but one day or two, is endurable ; but 
to suffer for weeks, months, years, always 
the same pain, the same anguish, .... is 
too much for our frail will ; we soon fall 
exhausted. 

Question that poor soul wounded and 
fallen, and she will answer with tears: 
"'Tis too much suffering; why does not 
God let me die ; yes, it would be better for 
me to die.' 7 May God prevent me from 
rebuking any one on account of this weak- 
ness of will, since Christ Himself fell to 
encourage us ; . . . . but it was neither the 
will of the Master, nor His heart that gave 
way; His body alone became exhausted. 
As for us, on the contrary, both our body 
3 



34 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

and our soul fall, and even our will, our 
energy weaken and give way. O my 
Divine Master, liow well Thou under- 
standest our poor hearts ! Thou knowest 
how weak we are ; Thou knowest that our 
strength is only as a transitory glimmer 
which shines to-day and fades to-morrow ; 
consequently, Thou doest not wonder to 
see us so weak, and our falls do not turn 
Thee away from us. Thou hast had pity 
on us, Thou hast fallen like us. But, 
Jesus, Thou didst rise immediately ! As 
for us, do we rise again? Are we to 
remain prostrate in the dust, without try- 
ing to rise and start again ? Oh human 
soul, arise, try again, take thy cross as 
Christ took his and proceed on thy way. 



MEDITATION IV. 



Jesus fleets His Mother. 

The disciples tried indeed to conceal 
from Mary the frightful sufferings of her 
divine Son ; but ere long, warned by the 
shouts and clamor of the mob, which re- 
sounded afar, she learned all She 

hastens to meet him ; she yearns to see her 
Son. Love helps her faltering steps, 

though anguish breaks her heart 

Through the streets of Jerusalem she hur- 
ries, and suddenly she beholds Him before 
her, pale, bleeding, bent under the burden 
of the cross — the cross which crushes 
Him. 

O Mother, this is thy own loved Son ! 
A smothered cry of supreme anguish 
escapes from the lips of the Virgin ; neither 



(35) 



86 TH&OUGrH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

the crowd, nor the soldiers can stop her ; 
and sobbing, placing her arms around the 
neck of her son, she embraces Him ; i 6 Nec 
potuit dicere verhum," says St. Boniface, 
"She is unable to utter a word." She does 
not speak, she silently weeps; and from 
the lips of Christ, no more than from the 
lips of Mary, tradition does not relate any 
utterance. A mother and her child need 
not words to understand each other ! Their 
tears alone speak, their sorrowful tears, 
the blood of their soul. 

O Mary, Mother, behold thy Son, the 
Beloved of thy heart; thy Son Jesus, so 
beautiful, whom thou so often didst fondle 
upon thy knees, whom thou didst so lov- 
ingly caress, this Jesus whom thou didst 
conceal in Egypt, fleeing from the jealousy 
of Herod; this Jesus who, after living 
thirty years under thy maternal care, had 
left thee to go to teach and save His 
people. . . . Behold what His people have 

done to Him Oh ! Virgin, leave Him 

no more, leave Him not, for He is about to 
die in excruciating sufferings and shame. 



JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER, 37 



There is in a mother's look something 
authoritative that commands respect, and 
at first makes the crowd and the soldiers 
instinctively fall back. But soon, their 
nobler feelings yield to baser passions. 
They violently wrest Jesus from Mary. 
The escort, momentarily stopped, starts 
again and goes on. Mary, now among the 
crowd, steadily watches and follows Jesus. 
Jesus proceeds on His way, seemingly 
stronger and as if reanimated by His 
Mother. At least one loving heart accom- 
panies Him on the road to martyrdom. 
He is not left alone to suffer. 

O Lord, I thank Thee for having allowed 
that the first mark of love which was 
bestowed on Thee along that sorrowful 
way should proceed from a mother's heart. 
O the love of a mother ! What love can 
compare with it ! It deserved to move and 
comfort Thee before any other. 

Let us now see the reason of this first 
consolation which comes to Jesus. Let us 
take the lesson of the Master in its natural 
import. You suffer, my child ; go then to 



38 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

your mother, and there in her arms your 
tears shall be dried. What need of such 
an advice ? The bleeding heart rushes in- 
stinctively to the heart of a mother. And 
when a mother sees her child suffering, 
her voice becomes sweeter, her love grows 
warmer, her caresses are softer, more ten- 
der and more soothing. How well do we 
not then perceive that mother and child 
are as one, for is not the child the flesh of 
her flesh, the blood of her blood, the life of 
her life ? . . . Behold Monica and Augustine 
on the seashore where the ocean wave 
comes to spend itself. But why recall 
Monica and Augustine ? Has not every 
one of us had a mother? Do we forget 
how she loved us ? Have we not seen her 
eyes and her loving smile; have we not 
heard her soft voice, have we not felt her 
caresses upon our cheeks, her kisses upon 
our lips ? Who does not know, that in a 
mother 7 s heart is the true refuge of our 
souls ? 

But alas ! Although we may not have 
yet lived many years, there remains for 



JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER. 39 

most of us only the remembrance of this 
unspeakable love! .... To be near our 
mother, we have to go to the cemetery, 
and even there what do we find? Inert 
dust, which can neither speak nor hear. 
It is the only visible thing that remains of 
the one who bore us so great and so tender 
a love. 

Though our loving mother be dead, she 
yet lives; she sees us, she listens to us, she 
loves us yet, and through the mysterious 
veil which separates this world from 
heaven, she surrounds us with her com- 
forting tenderness. Why do we not go to 
her ? Why do we not speak to her ? Why 
do we not show her our hearts when 
bruised with sorrow ? 

But this is not all: on Calvary, where 
Christ is now going to die for us, another 

Mother shall be given to us The 

Queen of sorrows will become our Mother. 
She also will have pity on us and will com- 
fort us, and this far more lovingly and 
effectively than our own natural mother, 
for: Nemo tarn mater, "No one is so truly a 
mother as she." 



MEDITATION V. 



Simon the Cyrenean. 

Christ continues to carry his cross, but 
it becomes evident, even to His execu- 
tioners, that He will not be able to go thus 
all the way which still separates Him from 
Calvary. A Cyrenean happening to pass 
by, not aware of the drama which is to be 
enacted, comes nearer, curious to ascertain 
the object of such a crowd of Jews. The 
soldiers summon him to help carry the 
cross. The law gives them this right. 

Simon, not knowing Jesus, is indifferent 
to His cause, bearing Him neither love nor 
hatred ; possibly, he had heard of the 
Prophet of Nazareth, who had captivated 
all Judea. If o good feeling incites him to 
succor Jesus; his heart, however, being 



SIMON THE CYKENEAN. 41 



kind, he at first sight pitied Him ; but his 
pity soon gives way to the natural discon- 
tent one feels when called upon to perform 
something disagreeable and humiliating. 
Still he cannot escape, he has to submit, 
he obeys; so he takes upon his shoulder 
the end of the cross and carries it with 
Jesus. 

Jesus is relieved .... the cross is not 
less heavy, but He has to drag it no more 
with that strain which bruised Him and 
enlarged His bleeding wounds on account 
of the roughness of the road. He was not 
offended at the indifference of Simon, but 
rewarded him for the good he did by call- 
ing him to the light of faith. 

This indifferent Simon, this unknown 
man, without love, without hatred, who 
nevertheless comforts and succors our sor- 
row, do we not also meet him along our 
way? Yes. I see him present in those 
events, in those circumstances which are 
prepared by God far from us, which are 
realized independently of our will and 



42 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

which, without removing our sorrow, gives 
as it were a new course to our lives, shed- 
iiig a drop of joy or at least of comfort 
in it. 

Usually we cannot hold anybody respon- 
sible for our suffering: general causes 
which govern the world, by following laws 
almost fatal, without directly aiming at us, 
reach and strike us .... a mortal plague 
passes over our heads .... among thou- 
sands it attacks our bodies and throws us 
upon a bed of pain, t a prey to disease and 
possibly to death. . . . Who is responsible 
for this? An industrial or commercial 
crisis strikes a whole land; by laws as 
fatal as the laws of nature, it precipitates 
me into ruin. Who is guilty? A mother 
cries over the grave of her child, a hus- 
band over the grave of his wife, a child 
over that of its mother ; .... is not death 
one of the general laws of mankind? 
Therefore, upon whom must we lay the 
blame ? 

Even when our sorrows come from the 
free will of others, their free will is not 



SIMON THE CYRENEAN. 43 



always so perverted and so malicious as 
we should at first be led to imagine; for 
did they really intend the evil they did % 
Were they not weaker than wicked ? Do 
they not themselves regret the evil which 
they did not foresee ? And just as these 
circumstances, these persons are for us a 
cause of suffering, without their will or 
knowledge, also, without knowing it, with- 
out willing it, other events, other persons 
comfort and console us. 

It is indeed a very strange coincidence, 
that at the first shock, suffering always 
appears to us unbearable. We do not see 
how, under such a stroke, we shall be able 
to live; it seems that we must succumb 
and die. Time goes on, and yet we do not 
die! And if, after several months of sor- 
rowful life, after one year, two or more 
years, we ask ourselves, how it has been 
possible that we could have borne the trial, 
we perceive that certain fortuitous events 
and circumstances, which came as a ray of 
light during a night which we thought was 
to be endless, as a ray of hope in our 



44 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

souls, which seemed forever closed to hap- 
piness. Here are our Cyreneans, and we 
are wrong not to trust in them, 

Neither our happiness, nor our unhappi- 
ness ever reaches the measure we had fore- 
seen; nothing happens, neither so good, 
nor so bad as we had imagined ; however 
sad or joyful we fancy the future, we 
always greatly magnify it. 

But, why speak of fortuitous events, 
fatal circumstances, blind laws ? Is this 
the language of a Christian? No, no, no. 
It is God we should see in every occur- 
rence, our own God, our loving Father. It 
is He who disposes all things around us, 
it is He who weaves all the web of our 
lives, it is He who mingles in it cheer and 
sorrow, tears and smiles, sadness and com- 
fort Eough as is the way on which 

we walk, it is He who traced it ; He made 
it for our feet, He fixed it according to our 
strength and courage .... He loves us, 
and it is His love, His love only which is 
the providence of our lives. 



MEDITATION VI. 



Veronica. 

The example of Mary following her Son 
encouraged other hearts. Women soon 
accompanied her, weeping and sympathiz- 
ing with her. Jesus by that time was in- 
deed a very pitiful sight. Bent under His 
cross, pale and exhausted, He staggers as 
He walks along, big drops of sweat mingle 
with the blood upon His sacred face. The 
Jews insult Him, the soldiers use Him 
roughly ; as a lamb led to the slaughter, 
He utters no complaint. Beholding such 
a sorrow, witnessing such outrages, at the 
sight of His divine face bleeding, a 
woman's heart is moved; she forces her 
way through the soldiers, kneels before 
Jesus, and presents Him with a towel. 



(45) 



46 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

Tradition relates that when He returned 
it, His countenance was impressed upon 
it. The woman's name being unkown, she 
has been called, in remembrance of this, 
Veronica, that is to say, the true image. 

It is the second mark of affection which 
Christ receives and welcomes; the first 
came from His Mother, the second from a 
friend. Does it not point out to us the 
two first sources of consolation, with 
which we can refresh our souls : the family 
and friendship? 

Holy Writ calls friendship "the remedy 
of life." It gives us in the friendship of 
David and Jonathan a most attractive and 
tender picture. "The soul of Jonathan 
was knit with the soul of David, and 
Jonathan loved him as his own soul." 
But how rare among men is this holy and 
delightful friendship! How often self- 
interest, selfishness, caprice, and passion 
are concealed under its name ! 

If God, in His goodness, has put along 
your way a friend, faithful and true, Oh ! 
bless Him, realize the price of this great 



VERONICA. 



47 



gift ! Open to your friend your suffering, 
disconsolate heart ; you need but show him 
your suffering, and he will bring comfort 
to your soul. 

True enough, neither the love of Mary, 
nor the friendship of Veronica, took off the 
cross of Jesus. It still remained, bruising 
His shoulder, but at least they soothed 
His heart. So will your friends do like- 
wise; their friendship will not end your 
sorrow, for you shall continue to wear it 
still burning in your heart ; but they will 
soften its bitterness. Their words will be 
like balm in your sore wounds. Therefore 
taste the sweetness of friendship, since 
God Himself gives us the example ; let us 
accustom our souls to the joy of loving, 
since He has empowered friendship to 
alleviate the evils of life. 

But, alas ! do not our friends often aban- 
don us ? Do they not often leave us, for- 
get us ? Do they not die ? To see them 
forgetful of us, forsaking us, or dying, one 
by one, and alone to survive them, con- 
stitutes one of life's greatest miseries. 



48 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

Listen to David weeping over Jonathan: 
"The illustrious of Israel are slain upon 
thy mountains : how are the valiant fallen ? 
Tell it not in Geth, publish it not in the 
streets of Ascalon, lest the daughters of 
the Philistines rejoice. ... Ye mountains 
of Gelboe, let neither dew, nor rain come 
upon you, neither be they fields of first 
fruit ; for there were cast away the shields 
of the valiant, the shield of Saul. Saul 
and Jonathan,, lovely and comely in their 
life, even in death they were not divided : 
Ye, daughters of Israel, weep over Saul. 
How are the valiant fallen in battle? 
Jonathan slain in the high places ? I 
grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan, ex- 
ceeding beautiful and amiable to me above 
the love of women. How are the valiant 
fallen V J 

Who does not know that death may 
snatch our friends from us ? Who does 
not mourn in his soul? Shall we be left 
alone, if human friendship fails to comfort 
us, in our suffering ? No ; there is one 
Friend who dieth not, who day and night 



VERONICA. 



49 



expects us and calls us, ready to give 
Himself to us in an unspeakable love : it 
is Jesus Christ Himself. 

? Tis He who took this name, when giv- 
ing Himself to us: "I will not call you 
servants .... I have called you friends.' ? 
Here, then, is the immortal Friend of our 
souls. Before taking up the cross which 
He was to carry to Calvary, He had given 
to His apostles His own flesh to eat, His 
very blood to drink, wishing to be one 
with them. Eead and read again in the 
Gospel the sublime farewell discourse of 
Christ to those He addresses as His 
friends: behold what a love! As for us, 
why do we not go to this Divine Friend ? 
Why do we forget Him when we suffer ? 
Why do we leave Him alone in the taber- 
nacle of His temples'? Why? 



4 



MEDITATION VII. 



The Second FaSL 

Notwithstanding Simon's help, and not- 
withstanding the comfort which Mary and 
Veronica gave Him, Jesus becomes more 
and more exhausted; His strength fails 
again, and as He approaches one of the 
gates of the city, He falls the second time. 

It is a heartrending shock to Mary and 
Veronica; almost breathless they run to 
succor Him ; but they are repelled by the 
mob and the soldiers. The executioners 
roughly raise up Jesus. The march goes 
on, but it is evident the Divine Saviour 
can not bear up much longer. Many were 
already wondering how a man so frail, so 
exhausted, could so long endure such 
hardships. 



(50) 



THE SECOND FALL. 



51 



Who can imagine the condition of our 
Divine Lord at that moment? So many 
shocks had kept open all His wounds, 
causing His blood to flow and cover His 
sacred face. A heart of stone would have 
been softened ; but the hearts of the Jews 
remained stubborn and hardened; their 
only fear was lest Christ's death would 
come too soon ; lest He should die on the 
way instead of on Golgotha, and thus de- 
prive them of the pleasure of witnessing 
His ignominious death. 

The thoughts of Jesus were of His 
people. He foresaw the future ruin of 
Jerusalem, the captivity of her children, 
of this perfidious race, thirsting for His 
blood. He said: " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
thou that killest the prophets and stones 
them that are sent unto thee, how often 
would 1 have gathered together thy chil- 
dren, as the hen doth gather her chick- 
ens under her wings, and thou wouldst 
not? .... Behold your house shall be 
left to you, desolate .... there shall not 
be left here a stone upon a stone that shall 



52 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 



not be destroyed." So it is not on His 
bodily sufferings that He thinks; He 
thinks on His people and their further 
calamities. 

In this second fall there is a twofold 
teaching for us. Christ, our divine Savi- 
our, shows us that, sweet as are the con- 
solations which come from man to man, 
they are ineffective. He allows them, since 
He tasted them Himself, but, immediately 
after, He shows that we should not rely 
much upon them; for,, after having been, 
consoled by His mother's love, after hav- 
ing been assisted by Simon, His strength 
fails and He falls to the ground. 

As I have said: friendship, motherly 
love, human affection soothe our suffering 
for a little while. They are the oil and 
the wine poured upon the wounds of the 
unfortunate traveler by the Samaritan 
passing by; but here is the sorrow: the 
Samaritan does not remain, but goes away. 
Friends do not stay forever, they leave us 
sooner or later. 



THE SECOND FALL. 



53 



How often do we not, like the disciples 
going to Bmmaus insisting on the Lord to 
remain with them, say to a friend about to 
leave us in our sorrow: "Stay with us, be- 
cause it is towards evening, and the day is 
now far spent." But he stays not, and 
our hearts go back afar into the night, 
and, weary and lonely, we fall again into 
despondency. 

Then, with renewed efforts, we rise 
again, strong and courageous. It is a 
second triumph, but soon after our energy 
weakens again, and once more we fall 
under the cross which crushes us. And 
then, weary and despondent, we are 
troubled in our inmost soul, because we 
are obliged forever to vanquish an enemy 
that attacks us forever. Is this struggle 
to continue for all time ? Yes, poor soul 
of mine, during your pilgrimage here 
below, you have to start again and again 
on the same sorrowful way. But Jesus is 
there to give 3 T ou the example how to do 
it. He is there to impart to you light and 
and strength. Go then to Him. 



MEDITATION VIII. 



Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem. 

Jesus, carrying His cross, has now 
passed the walls of Jerusalem. Within 
one hundred steps of the gate, at a place 
where the ascent to Calvary becomes more 
steep, He sees weeping women coming to 
meet Him ; some mothers perhaps, whose 
little children He had caressed; perhaps 
that widow of Nairn, to whom He had 
given back her son. He recognizes them, 
and, seeing their tears, thanks them, and, 
then opening His heart, with a voice as 
sweet as it is touching, He says to them : 
"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over 
Me but weep for yourselves, and for your 
children. For, behold, the days shall 
come, wherein they will say: Blessed are 



(54) 



JESUS COMFORTS THE WOMEN. 55 

the barren and the wombs that have not 
borne and the paps that have not given 
suck. Then shall they begin to say to the 
mountains : Fall ujjon us, and to the hills : 
cover us. For if in the green wood they 
do these things, what shall be done in the 
dry?" 

It was as an echo of the prophecies He 
had uttered two days previously: "They 
that are in Judea, let them flee to the 
mountains. And. he that is on the house- 
top, let him not come down to take any- 
thing out of his house ; woe to them that 
are with child and that give suck in those 
days. There shall be then great tribula- 
tion, such as hath not been from the be- 
ginning of the world until now, neither 
shall be." 

While Jesus speaks, there is silence, 
but when He has ceased speaking, the 
Jews answer by curses and insults. 

Later on, a day shall come when another 
Jesus, the son of Ananus, during the 
solemnity of the Tabernacles, shall say 
also: "Woe to the City! Woe to the 



56 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS.. 

Temple! Voices from the Bast, Voices 
from the West, Voices from the four winds 
of the earth, woe to Jerusalem!" They 
will scourge him too, but at every stroke 
of the lash, he will cry out: "Woe to 
Jerusalem V J During four years he will 
continue to do so : on the forum and in the 
streets, everywhere and at all times he will 
utter his sorrowful saying. And some days 
after, Jerusalem and her temple shall dis- 
appear in ruins, among the flames of an 
immense conflagration. 

By thinking only on the sufferings of 
others, our Divine Saviour teaches us a 
wonderful means of sweetening the bitter- 
ness of our trials. Like Him, let us for- 
get our sorrows in order to relieve those of 
our neighbor. 

When in suffering, we are apt to believe 
we are the most unhappy of mankind. We 
feel an almost irresistible inclination to 
complain that we have more to suffer than 
the rest of mankind, and that no one else 
has to suffer as we do; such a thought 



JESUS COMFORTS THE WOMEN. 57 

tends to render our life more burdensome 
and painful. 

However tried we may be, we are not an 
exception among our fellow-men. Suffer- 
ing is the lot of all the children of Adam. 
True enough, God does not dispense to all 
the same amount or kind of suffering, but 
no one is free from it. The feelings of all 
are not equally hurt, but the heart of each 
one bleeds nevertheless. 

Were we more carefully to look around 
us, we should not be so easily deceived as 
to the greatness of our trials. A mother, 
bereft of a darling only child, for instance, 
sees another mother whom God has allowed 
to keep all her little ones, and complains 
bitterly of her loss. Were she to look at 
a third who had three, four, or five chil- 
dren and who has seen them all snatched 
away from her, one after the other, at the 
same age, from the same disease, she 
would be more resigned to her loss. 

A wealthy family, ruined during a finan- 
cial crisis, thinks of others who escaped all 
loss and can continue a life of ease and 



58 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

luxury, while they have now barely the 
necessities of life. Were they to look at 
the numberless poor and destitute families , 
whose life is one of constant privation and 
misery, who have sometimes not even a 
piece of dry bread to give their famished 
little ones, they would surely not so easily 
complain of their lot. 

To think on the poor, is of great benefit 
to them that suffer. And not only to think 
on them, to take interest in their miseries, 
to succor them, to become their friend, to 
make sacrifices for them, to serve and love 
them as Jesus did, will ever prove a great 
source of comfort in our crosses and trials. 

Some, perhaps, may not understand how 
by caring for the poor, by loving, visiting 
and helping them, we may find sweetness 
and consolation amid our trials and secret 
sorrows. But let them try it whenever 
they are in suffering and affliction, and 
they will be astonished at the happy results 
in sweetening life's bitter trials. I appeal 
to the experience of the members of the 
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, to all those 



JESUS COMFORTS THE WOMEN. 59 

charitable Christian ladies who devote 
themselves to the relief of the poverty- 
stricken and the sick poor. They can tell 
us how the sight and relief of the miseries 
they witnessed in the hovels of the poor, 
of the destitute sick, enabled them to bear 
their own crosses with resignation and 
even with gratitude to God for dealing so 
leniently with them, and even turned their 
crosses into motives of joy at being able to 
suffer a little for Christ. 

It is well to give alms, but the mere giv- 
ing is but little. We should come into 
close contact with the needy; and when we 
see so many of our fellow-men more sorely 
tried than we are, and sometimes bearing 
their heavy trials with such resignation 
and even cheerfulness, we shall learn how 
to profit by our own lighter sufferings. 



MEDITATION IX. 



Jesus Falls the Third Time* 

From the Judiciary Gate to the top of 
the hill of Calvary , there are about two 
hundred steps. It was after proceeding 
about half of that distance, that Jesus met 
the daughters of Jerusalem. A little fur- 
ther on, He grows so weak and faint that, 
for the third time, His knees tremble and 
He falls to the ground. 

The soldiers roughly raise Him up and 
place again the cross upon His shoulders, 
and then He proceeds, rudely pulled and 
pushed by them, until He reaches the end 
of His painful journey. 

Why is this third fall of our Divine 
Saviour % Why should we again recall to 



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JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME. 61 

our minds the lesson which He has already 
twice given us? Do we not know that, 
sinful and weak, we shall fall sometimes, 
and that it will be necessary for us to rise 
again ? Yes, we know that, but we do not 
sufficiently realize it. Our conduct shows 
that we fail to understand this or to act in 
accordance with our knowledge. 

When we enjoy peace and contentment, 
we reason, indeed, very well about our 
past trials, and we realize how unwise we 
were in allowing ourselves to become so 
despondent on account of them, we make 
firm resolutions henceforth to bear our suf- 
ferings more courageously and cheerfully. 
But when the sorrowful hours comes, lo ! 
our fervor vanishes like smoke. Our 
knees waver and we fall to the earth, dis- 
couraged and despondent. 

The danger and misfortune is not so 
much that we are weak and fall and com- 
mit sin, for all this is only human, since 
"the just man falls seven times/ 7 and 
Christ plainly shows how He pities us, nor 
that we yield to a transient discourage- 



62 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

ment, but that we grow despondent and 
lose all courage, forgetting that though the 
just man falls seven times, yet "he rises 
again. " Now, however humiliating it may 
be for us to despond, to lack energy and 
strength, to remain prostrate in our sins, 
we, nevertheless, feel tempted not to rise 
from our sins, either because we think : 
"Of what use is it for me to rise, since I 
am sure to fall again however much I may 
try," or because, yielding to slothe, we say 
to ourselves : "It is too difficult; I cannot 
overcome this fault." Such apathy, such 
moral cowardice, such despondency in 
times of trial is often seen and often even 
causes the death of the soul. Such a soul 
is powerless for good. It has no energy, 
no zeal for salvation. Let us never yield 
to despondency. Let us struggle until the 
last moment, let us rise again and as often 
as we fall, after the example of our Lord. 



MEDITATION X. 



Jesus Drenched with Gall and Stripped 
of His Clothes. 

At last the goal of the painful journey is 
reached. The executioners take the cross 
from off the shoulder of Christ and they 
make the last preparations for the cruci- 
fixion. The mob now press around as near 
as they can the Victim and His executi- 
oners. Among the crowd I see Mary 
heart-broken, yet strong and courageous ; 
Magdalen and a few holy women are with 
her, and also John the beloved disciple. 

While some soldiers dig the hole where 
the cuoss is to be placed, and others pre- 
pare the hammers and the nails, two of 
them strip Christ Jesus .... they take off 
His mantle and other clothing, then the 



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64 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 



coat without seam which the hands of 
Mary had spun and woven for Him. These 
clothes the soldiers divided among them- 
selves, and they cast lots for the coat with- 
out seam. 

And Jesus standing, thus stripped before 
all, looking up to heaven, becomes an ob- 
ject of shame and derision, shrouded only 
by the blood pouring out of His re-opened 
wounds, and His head crowned with 
thorns. Behold Christ! Behold the Lord 
and Sovereign of the universe ! He is the 
poorest man, for He has nothing that He 
can call His own ! 

What worldly riches did He possess ? 

Gold ? He lived on alms, and even these 

Judas stole from Him A dwelling? 

For years previously He could say that He 
had not even a stone whereon to lay His 
head Glory? He is about to die be- 
tween two thieves Honors? They 

slandered Him, saying He was a political 
conspirator, a drunkard, a madman, and 
preferring even Barabbas to Him. . . . As 
to the disciples and followers, where are 



JESUS DRENCHED WITH GALL, ETC. 65 

they? They have fled and are concealed. 
They did not hide themselves when their 
Master entered Jerusalem in triumph ! But 
to-day what is left to him? .... There re- 
main to Him Mary, His Mother, Mary of 
Magdala, and John, and a few holy souls. 
O my God, I thank Thee for having kept 
for Thy divine Son at least one treasure, 
tender and sweet. Tell me, reader, why, 
in spite of the law, did the Eoman soldiers 
allow Mary, Magdalen and John to stand 
at the foot of the cross, unless it was be- 
cause Christ wished to bestow on them 
His last look. 

The Romans were wont, before inflicting 
capital punishment, to offer to those to be 
executed a mixture of wine and myrrh, 
the effect of which, notwithstanding its 
bitterness, would be to produce stupor in 
the condemned and render them to some 
extent insensible to pain. The executioners 
therefore offered a similar beverage to our 
Lord. He tasted it in order to suffer from 
its bitterness, but would not drink it, for 
He wished to feel all the intensity of the 
5 



66 THROUGH BUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

pains of His cruel death. By so acting He 
intended to show us that we should not 
seek relief from pain in remedies that de- 
prive us of our senses. He thus condemns 
our too great eagerness to get rid of all 
bodily suffering as well as the inordinate 
use of remedies to destroy pain. 

Now what lessons does Christ teach us 
by being thus wholly deprived of His gar- 
ments ? In the first place, He wished to 
undergo every kind of suffering for our 
sins. "It would be a dire blasphemy, " 
wrote Father Bavignan, "to pretend that 
there exists in the world a pain, a - trial, 
a torment which Jesus did not assume on 
His bleeding shoulders. ?? 

We do not understand this absolute 
despoliation, because our misery never ex- 
tends to such a depth ; we do not under- 
stand it, because Providence, even when 
striking us, does not reduce us to extreme 
misery* 

But we are not alone in the world. 
There are some poor who have hardly even 
more rags of clothing to wear, and who, to 



JESUS DRENCHED WITH GALL, ETC. 67 

cover their nakedness at least in part, 
have to beg from door to door what we 
deem no longer fit to wear. There are 
fathers and mothers of families who, in 
spite of the hardest toil, cannot earn 
enough to procure the most indispensable 

clothing for their children There are 

parents who, when their boys and girls are 
about to make their first holy Communion, 
to receive Christ Jesus who as lovingly 
calls the poorest as the children of the 
wealthy, who are pained to the heart, be- 
cause they are too poor to provide their 
darling children with decent clothing for 
the day when they are for the first time to 
have the ineffable happiness to receive 
their God into their hearts. 

What ! you do not know this ? You do 
not know that in the slums of our great 
cities, there are men, women, and children 
who are famishing for want of sufficient 
nourishment? And do you believe that 
Christ forgets them, His poor, that He 
pays no heed to their sufferings, and that 
He has not an example and a comfort to 
give them % 



68 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

This is the reason why He stands on 
Calvary stripped of His garments, poorer 
than the poorest! He undergoes this 
shame, this privation for the sake of the 
poor, His beloved poor, whom He made 
His brethren, .... for, do not forget this, 
ye that are wealthy, it was not among you 
that He chose to be born, it was among 
them. Whoever does not love the poor 
and the humble of this world, does not un- 
derstand the spirit and love of Jesus 
Christ. 



MEDITATION XI. 



Jesus is Nailed to the Cross. 

The Evangelists relate that greatest and 
most important of events, our Lord's 
Crucifixion, in the fewest words possible, 
simply saying: "They crucified Him." 
According to the common view of painters 
and sculptors, the cross was laying on the 
ground when our Saviour was nailed to it, 
and afterwards it was raised and planted 
in the hole previously dug. This view, 
so graphically placed before the eyes of the 
faithful, has, little by little, become the 
common belief. Still it is not likely the 
correct view. 

The Eomans were not wont to crucify in 
such a way. At first the cross was erected. 
Then the sentenced man, stripped of his 



(69) 



70 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

clothes, was brought to its foot; a rope 
was passed under his arms, the ends of 
which were thrown about the lateral bars 
of the cross, and he was raised up to a 
convenient height. Ladders were then set 
against the cross. The executioners 
ascended them, extended the arms of the 
victim one after the other, and bound them 
to the wood; then they nailed him with 
large nails by the feet and the hands. 

If the Eoman soldiers, charged with the 
execution of Christ, had deviated from 
custom, very likely the Evangelists would 
have made note of it. 

Here, therefore, is what happens to 
Jesus. They tie the rope about His body 
and raise Him in front of the cross ; ropes, 
cutting into His flesh, bind His arms and 
legs to the cross, and then large nails, 
driven through His hands and feet with a 
hammer, fix and secure Him to the cross. 

All this is done in the presence of His 
Mother! 

The Jews cheer, rejoicing at the sight of 
the blood that flows, of the flesh that pal- 



JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS. 



71 



pitates, and of the tears of His weep- 
ing Mother, for their hatred is now satis- 
fied. Listen to how they insult and revile 
Him. 

"Vah, Thou that destroyest the temple 
of God and in three days dost rebuilt it : 
save Thy own self : if Thou be the Son of 
God, come down from the cross. He saved 
others, Himself He cannot save. If He be 
the King of Israel, let Him now come down 
from the cross, and we will believe Him." 
And at every one of these outrages the 
mob answers with coarse and vulgar jests. 

The Bom an soldiers also laugh and join 
in reviling Him. Even one of the thieves, 
crucified with Him, amid His own tor- 
tures, loads Him with abuse and derision. 

Jesus lets His head fall upon His chest ; 
His eyes half opened are resting on Mary, 
John, and Magdalen. To the outrages and 
insults of the crowd He makes no reply; 
but raising His eyes toward heaven, He 
opens His lips, saying: "Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do. ?? 
* 



72 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

Why is the shedding of all His blood ? 
Why did Jesus undergo so many tortures, 
allowing His body to be scourged. His 
forehead to be encircled with a crown of 
thorns, His hands and feet to be pierced 
and torn? Why did Christ allow this? 
He wished to set an example to the mar- 
tyrs; He wished to bear Himself all the 
bodily pains which He was to call thou- 
sands of His faithful to suffer. 

Time has placed the martyrs a great 
distance from us ; so many centuries have 
passed over the Colosseum and the cata- 
combs, that we forget what it then cost to 
remain faithful to Christ. We forget that 
other martyrs have followed, at each epoch 
of Christianity, that every age has seen its 
own, that even our own age, the twentieth 
century, has seen many, and that the Pas- 
sion of Christ has served as the model to 
all of them. 

Christ Jesus is not on the cross merely 
as our teacher. Do you not see that 
Mother, enduring in her heart, without 
fainting, the tortures and insults inflicted 



JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS. 73 

on her Son % The body of Jesus is not the 
only thing which is torn by the execu- 
tioners' instruments : the heart of Mary is 
rent by every stroke, every wound, every 
drop of blood, for is not this agonizing 
Victim her own Son ? 

It was necessary that it should be so, for 
Mary was destined to be an example to 
mothers who would have to witness the 
martyrdom of their sons, and even to en- 
courage them to suffer for Christ. Christ 
and His Blessed Mother were to be an ex- 
ample and a model to all who, in the 
course of ages, would have sufferings and 
trials to endure. 

And now Christ says to us : "Come and 
see whether there be a sorrow like unto 
My sorrow.' 7 And you worldlings com- 
plain of a little pain, and get discouraged 
at some slight trial, and murmur on ac- 
count of it against God who deals so merci- 
fully with you! You even ask why He 
sends you so much suffering, saying: 
L 1 What have I done that God should treat 
me thus?" 



74 THROUGH SUFFERING- TO HAPPINESS. 

Did Christ deserve His suffering 1 What 
crime had He committed to be thus so 
cruelly and so shamefully treated. 

"He suffered," says the Gospel, "and so 
entered into His glory. " This is why you 
also suffer, why you must suffer — -that 
through suffering and tribulation you may 
reach eternal happiness and glory ! 

My God, what are the goods of this 
world, that we grieve so much when we 
lose them ! What is there in the pleasures 
of this earth, that our hearts should suffer 
so cruelly when we are deprived of them ? 
Are they not all vain and transitory? Has 
any of them ever satisfied my heart ? And 
yet, when Thou requirest us to sacrifice 
any of them, however insignificant, that 
we may thereby purchase heavenly bliss, 
we hesitate, and grieve, and murmur, as if 

Thou demandest too much of us! 

Ah ! if we could, once for all, only under- 
stand what this earth is, and what is 
heaven, this short life here below and the 
eternal life beyond the grave ; if we could 
but realize how a little suffering in this life 



JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CBOSS. 75 



may secure never-ending happiness in 
heaven, how soon we would cease com- 
plaining, and how we would bless and love 
our sufferings. 



MEDITATION XII. 

The Death of Christ. 

Jesus hangs upon the cross, His blood 
oozing drop by drop from His sacred body 
and His life slowly ebbing away. The 
Jews rejoice at this sight. Mary standing 
by, does not take her eyes .off from her 
divine Son. John near her is also over- 
whelmed with sorrow; Magdalen, kneeling, 
with both arms clasping the tree of the 
cross, imprints kisses on the torn feet of 
her divine Master. Since noon the sky 
has been growing darker and darker, and 
a livid and sinister obscurity spreads over 

the whole earth Jesus feels that His 

hour is come. i 'Mother, ? ? He says to Mary 
with unspeakable tenderness, "Mother, 
behold thy son;" and turning His eyes to 



(76) 



THE DEATH OF CHUIST. 



77 



John the beloved disciple, He says: " Be- 
hold thy mother." 

And, as if wishing to express the in- 
tense desolation He experiences in His 
soul at being so forsaken. He exclaims: 
"My God, my God, why hast Thou for- 
saken Me ?" Then alluding to His having 
fulfilled all the prophecies, He cries out : 
"It is consummated!" And finally He 
adds: "Father, into Thy hands I commend 
My spirit;" then, bowing His head, He 
dies. 

Suddenly in the temple the veil of the 
sanctuary is rent in twain. The earth 
quakes, as if it was about to perish : the 
rocks are split, and the graves are opened, 
and many bodies of the saints that had 
slept, arise. 

"Truly," cries the centurion in com- 
mand of the soldiers, "this was the Son of 
God;" and he strikes his breast. His sol- 
diers imitate him ; then the Jews, having 
satisfied their hatred, depart; the mob 
scatters little by little, trying in vain to 
conceal their fear at the sight of terrible 



78 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 



events taking place. Mary, John, and 
Magdalen remain near the cross. Soon 
Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, 
the mother of John, join them and grieve 
with them near the cross on which their 
Lord's lifeless body hangs. 

The Son of God underwent death ; and 
so must we. . . . Our death is perhaps not 
far off ; perhaps we have already its germ 
within ourselves; perhaps our foreheads 
are already marked with its seal. 

To die ! I must die ! These words grate 
harshly in our ears ! Nevertheless we must 
die. "Man's days are as grass; as the 
flower of the field, so shall he flourish. " 

Whence comes this dread which death 
inspires ? In this world we live especially 
by our senses, it is through them that our 
desires wake up within us. So during our 
whole life, however innocent it may be, 
our minds are full of thoughts of material 
and corporal objects; these only do we 
perceive, these only do we love. Now 
death steps in, roughly tears us from this 
word of the senses, and separates us from 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 



79 



it forever. Is it any wonder, if we find 
death cruel ! 

But why do we allow ourselves to be- 
come so attached to things transitory? Do 
we not know we are to leave them some 
day? God has placed the seal of death 

upon every creature He wishes all 

of them to serve as a warning of the brevity 

of life Before us flowers fade, fruits 

fall, trees die, light gives way to 

darkness. The singing of birds which so 
charms us, dies away in the echoes of the 
woods, and is no more. Even those im- 
mense rocks, seemingly destined to outlast 
ages, in the course of time crumble, and by 
and by become dust. And within our- 
selves how many things die ! 

Our present act escapes us the very 
moment we perform it. How often we 
would like to grasp it as it flies away, to 

improve it, but already it is gone. 

Time, that mysterious image of life, what 
else is it but a series of points in duration ; 
one moment dies while the other arises. 
Our thoughts go, our wills vanish, our 



80 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

affections die one after the other " 

Every thing in nature cries out to us : ' 'I 
must die. ?? Is there anything permanent 
and immutable in this world! And we 
who naturally feel the need of the endless 
and unchangeable, how should we attach 
our hearts to what is vain and transitory, 
since they are made to enjoy the infinite! 
This is not all: we who are soon to die, 
we attach ourselves to the world that we 
are soon to leave» How foolish! 

Even if everything were endless around 
us, would it not be enough to know that 
we must die, in order not to expose our- 
selves to the anguish of an imminent and 
fatal separation ? . . . . 

No ! It is when death is near, when deep 
wrinkles furrow our faces, when our hair 
turns gray, when our bodies grow stiff and 
feeble, it is then that we cling with a deliri- 
ous energy to the vain loves of this earth ! 
.... Whose fault is it, if the very thought 
of death proves unendurable to us and 
causes us fear and pain ? 



MEDITATION XIII. 

Jesus Is Taken Down From the Cross. 

The sabbath hour is near at hand. Ac- 
cording to the Jewish law the bodies of the 
executed should not remain on the crosses 
during the holy day. The priests, there- 
fore, go to Pilate, asking him to direct the 
breaking of the bones of the three cruci- 
fied, in order to hasten their death, that 
they may be taken down from the crosses 
before sunset. The order is issued : sol- 
diers with iron bars break the bones of the 
limbs of the two thieves : but, as they are 
about to do the same to Jesus, they per- 
ceive that He is already dead, and they 
pass by. One of them, less sure, in order 
to remove any doubt, thrusts his spear 
into Jesus' breast and transpierces His 



6 



(81) 



82 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

heart; from the wound blood and water 
come forth. 

And all this is done in Mary's presence! 

'Now, according to the Jewish custom, 
the bodies of the executed were thrown 
into a common grave, where they were to 
remain uncovered, until the flesh would be 
consumed. After this their relatives were 
allowed to take their bones and bury them 
in the family tomb. 

Joseph of Arimathea, counsellor of the 
Sanhedrim, would not suffer this sad lot to 
befall his divine Master. He had long 
been a secret disciple of Jesus, but for fear 
of the Jews, he had concealed it. In the 
Sanhedrim he had not had the courage to 
protect the Innocent ; but now that Jesus 
was dead, his love for Him inspired him 
with greater courage and strength. He 
went to Pilate and fearlessly asked for the 
body of Jesus. This Pilate readily granted, 
and Joseph went to Calvary. 

There, helped by some disciples who, 
after the crowd had gone away, had come 
near the cross of Jesus, he slowly takes 



JESUS IS TAKEN FROM THE CROSS. 83 



Jesus down from the cross. At the foot of 
the gibbet Mary is seated and opens her 
arms to receive the bleeding, torn, livid, 
cold and lifeless body of her beloved Son. 

* 

O Mary, dost thou remember the day 
when in the stable of Bethlehem, God gave 
thee that Son so charming and lovely, how 
on thy knees, in thy arms, He smiled in 
response to thy respectful caresses ? . . . . 
Behold what sinners have done to Him and 
in what a fearful condition He is given 
back to thee. 

4 'What a sea of tears and sorrows, 
Did the soul of Mary toss ; 
To and fro upon its billows, 
While she wept her bitter loss ; 
In her arms her Jesus holding, 
Torn but newly from the cross. 

Oh, that mournful Virgin Mother, 
See her tears, how fast they flow 
Down upon His mangled body, 
Wounded side and thorny brow : 
While His hands and feet she kisses — 
Picture of immortal woe. 



84 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

Oft and oft His arms and bosom 
Fondly straining to her own ; 
Oft her pallid lips imprinting 
On each wound of her dear Son 
Till at last, in throes of anguish, 
Consciousness is all but gone. 

Gentle Mother, we beseech thee, 
By thy tears and trouble sore ; 
By the death of th}^ dear offspring, 
By the bloody wounds He bore ; 
Touch our hearts with that true sorrow 
Which afflicted thee of yore. 

I have just transcribed the hymn of the 
feast of the Seven Sorrows. Indeed, there 
is not a mother who, having seen one of 
her children die, does not understand 
it 

When a mother sees her child die .... 
she doubts that he is dead. As she looks 
at him, it seems that he will breathe again. 
.... But when she touches him, and feels 
the little frame cold, when every illusion is 
dispelled, when she cannot doubt any more, 
when she, too, has to say: "He is dead, 
my son is dead," what words can tell of 
the anguish of her soul! Still mothers do 



JESUS IS TAKEN FROM THE CROSS. 85 

not usually die of grief. They would like 
to, but they have to live and suffer, . . . . 
and so they go on, many years perhaps, 
bearing in their heart a wound which shall 
never be healed ! 

Unfortunate mothers, behold Mary ! . . . 
See if your sorrow bears any comparison 

to hers When you grieve, go and 

weep near her! She suffered like you, 
nay, far more than you; she will under- 
stand you so well ! So well that she will, 
as it were, wisper to your heart words of 
strength and comfort. Go to her : she is a 
mother like you ; like you she has seen her 
Son die, her only Son, whom she loved 
with the most intense natural love, whom 
she loved as her God, with a love sur- 
passing that of the very Seraphim in 
heaven. 



MEDITATION XIV. 



Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb, 

The disciples, taking from Mary the 
body of Jesus , bring it down Mount Cal- 
vary. The Blessed Mother, Magdalen, 
and the other women silently follow them. 
The divine body is put upon a large stone. 
Gently and respectfully they wash from it 
the crimson blood. Then they pour upon 
it a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a 
hundred pound weight which Joseph had 
brought. They wrap the body in a shroud, 
and according to the custom of the Jews 
they wrap it in fine linen cloths. Very 
likely it was Magdalen who watched over 
this sorrowful burial, for we shall see her, 
as soon after the Sabbath is over, hasten- 
ing back to the sepulchre, in order to 

(66) 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB. 



87 



finish this work, which on account of the 
lateness of the hour, had been interrupted. 
Near by, in the rock, is the tomb hewn out 
for himself by Joseph of Arimathea. The 
body of Jesus is brought there. Mary 
gives it the last kiss ; it is placed in the 
sepulchre, and then a large stone is rolled 
to close its opening. All is now over. 

However, neither Mary, nor the group 
of holy women leave the place where rests 
the body of the divine Beloved. St. Mat- 
thew relates that "They were sitting over 
against the sepulchre." But at the setting 
of the sun, the beginning of the Jewish 
Sabbath, they all withdrew. 

The Blessed Mother, now henceforth 
alone, and Magdalen proceed slowly to- 
ward the city; on the way they see on the 
ground in many places the blood which 
Jesus had there shed. 

When death separates us from those we 
love, it seems that, at first, we cannot 
realize the extent of our loss, for we are, 
as it were, dazed by the stroke. A certain 



88 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

length of time is necessary to enable us to 
measure the void left in our midst by the 
death of the loved one. But the hour 
comes when we are sure to realize our loss 
to its full extent. When the corpse has 
been borne from the house, when the coffin 
has been lowered into the grave , when the 
shovelfuls of earth are falling one after the 
other upon it, and we see how final the 
separation is, then, like a flash of light- 
ning, a transport of grief suddenly seizes 
us, almost capable of depriving us of life. 

A similar effect may be produced also, 
when we lose a i>erson or a thing to which 
we are devotedly attached. 

When a very dear friend foresakes us, 
we remain long in doubt, hesitating in an- 
guish between hope and fear and fear and 
hope ; but an hour comes when the treason 
of the one who once loved us, appears 
clearly evident to us, who but a short time 
before, were blind to his evil deed; but 
now we are done with him, done with him 
forever. 

Or through some misfortune we lose all 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB. 



89 



we have, and behold dire poverty staring 
us in the face, but we do not feel it yet; 
.... there is still some light in our sky. 
But some day we stand in some great need, 
and have not wherewith to procure it ; and 
now we realize what poverty really is ! 

While a man has yet a gleam of hope, 
he can, if he has the will, find the way 
again; but when all hope is gone, when all 
is lost, when all is finished! When we 
feel, like Mary, our loneliness in the dark 
and silent night, we are reduced to the 
lowest depths of despondency 

Poor souls that feel thus, why deceive 
yourselves ? Nothing is ever irretrievably 
lost, nothing is ever finished, nothing is 
ever without a remedy, because everything 
reaches its perfection, everything is found 
again, everything has its reparation in 
heaven. 

Undoubtedly, if we consider our life as 
a whole between its two earthly limits, 
birth and death ; that it begins with the 
one and ends with the other, then yes, how 
many things are finished, lost, and ir- 



90 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

reparable. But this is only one part of 

our life, the smaller part Do you 

forget it is to continue beyond this world, 
throughout an endless eternity? 

Why have we not more faith ? 

Our life is as a book, a page of which we 
turn here below; death comes very soon to 
turn the next, but the book does not finish 
with the page it has touched. Not a word, 
not a phrase is interrupted, and without 
any divergence, as the previous page had 
been opened, the next one opens itself in 
eternity. We shall never cease to live; 
not any of our beloved departed have 
ceased to live; an hour came when they 
ceased to live here below, an hour shall 
come when we also shall cease to live here 
below, but we all enter at once eternity to 
live therein a new life. 

If we would have this ardent faith, we 
would not concentrate all our thoughts, all 
our plans, all our resolutions, all our 
labor, all our endeavors, all our love on 
this world, where we have no permanent 
abode. We would do as the travellers 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB. 



91 



who go far away, across the ocean, to find 

a new land Do they seek on the 

vessel they are in a definite resting-place ? 
No, they think on the land they are soon 
to reach, on the new life they are to spend 
there. Should we not do the same? Is 
not this present life a mere crossing of a 
sea? What should we care about the 
weariness and the hardships of the voyage, 
since we are going to our Fatherland ! . . . 
Do we suffer very much when far from 
those we love, if we are journeying towards 
them, if every day brings us nearer to 
them? 

What an encouragement and a comfort 
this thought would be to us ! Another ad- 
vantage would accrue to us therefrom. It 
would open our eyes oftener to that future 
and never-ending life, and we would exert 
ourselves more energetically to insure for 
us there a happy destiny. For if faith 
tells us that death introduces us into it, it 
also tells us that the first step we take 
there will lead us to the tribunal of our 
Judge How shall I appear there, if 



92 THROUGH SUFFERING TO HAPPINESS. 

my hands are empty of virtues and good 
works ? How shall I appear there, if my 
soul is impure and defiled ? How shall I 
appear there, if I have done nothing for 
heaven, if I have worked only for this 
earth and this world which we must so 
soon leave ? 

But, if I have loved the good, if I have 
endeavored to be just, if my heart has 
remained firm against malice and perver- 
sity, .... if I have followed Christ along 
the royal road of suffering, how comforting 
and blessed will be that hour! It will be 
the end of my sorrow and the beginning of 
my joy; it will be a passage from exile to 
Fatherland. 

There my beloved ones await me, expect 
me. There I shall expect those I have 
left, until the day when God will gather 
all the souls of good will, to whom He 
came to announce peace. 

This first life is short ! . . . Indeed, this 
life is nothing in comparison with the 

other What is it to lose here, for a 

few hours, the joys which we shall find 



JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB. 



93 



there immeasurably greater and without 
end? 

Christians, as to the departed for whom 
you so bitterly grieve, fill your hearts with 
hopes of their happy lot, as well as for 
yourselves. ... If they have suffered here 
below, if you suffer here below, let me tell 
you again, have confidence 

Suffering is the great means of expiation, 
suffering is the mark of divine predestina- 
tion ; it washes us in the blood of our 
hearts, and our souls so purpled are pleas- 
ing to Christ ; He recognizes in them the 
signs by which He was marked when He 
ascended Calvary to atone for our sins and 
obtain eternal happiness for us. 



The End. 



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